Discuss the questions surrounding the authenticity of Snake Goddess or Priestess (Fig. 4.4). (MyArtsLab)

What will be an ideal response?

Arthur Evans was the archeologist responsible for the first major excavation on Crete in the early twentieth century. A century after he introduced the Snake Goddess to the world, scholars are still debating its authentic. In his book, Mysteries of the Snake Goddess (2002), Kenneth Lapatin makes a convincing case that craftspeople employed by Evans manufactured artifacts for the antiquities market. He believes that the body of the statue is an authentic antiquity, but the form in which we see it is largely the imaginative fabrication of Evans's restorers. Many parts were missing when the figures were unearthed, and so an artist working for Evans fashioned new parts and attached them to the figure. Lapatin believes that Sir Arthur, eager to advance his own theory that Minoan religion was dedicated to the worship of a Great Goddess, never doubted the manner in which the figures were restored. As interesting as the figure is, its identity as a snake goddess is at best dubious.